The latest story arc in Uncanny X-Men is an unbroken string of issues from UX3 23 through UX3 32. Issue #24 ties in to All-New X-Men #30, and Wolverine appears in issues #24-27. Since Logan died prior to the Axis crossover, this arc of Uncanny X-Men issues has to occur before Axis.

But wait! In UX3 31, Cyclops decides to close the New Xavier School and asks Storm to take in his students! In UX3 32, everyone leaves the New Xavier School except Cyclops, and Havok shows up at the school less than "three hours" later...a tie-in to the epilogue in Axis #9!

And...the New Xavier School and its students and faculty appear in the following comics:
Hulk #9 -- Kitty and Magik are at the New Xavier School in a story that, for Hulk's sake, should occur after Axis.
Avengers World #17 -- Magik is at the New Xavier School in a story that presumably occurs sometime after Avengers World #16, a crossover with Axis.
All-New X-Men #37 -- Magik and young Jean are at the New Xavier School in a story that takes place after ANX 36, which features the female Thor, so after Axis.

There's also the New Xavier School students' appearance in the crossover involving Uncanny X-Men Special #1, Iron Man Special #1, and Nova Special #1.

All of these issue are going to have to occur before UX3 23-32, since the New Xavier School gets shut down at the end of the arc.

So if UX3 23-32 occur before Axis, then why are folks still at the New Xavier School after Axis? And if UX3 23-32 occur after Axis, how is Wolverine present in that arc?

One interesting detail is that Kitty tells Illyana in Uncanny X-Men #32 that she just got back from spending time in space with her boyfriend. (Perhaps a reference to the Black Vortex crossover.) Since Kitty appeared in the previous issues of the UX3 arc, this suggests a break between UX3 31 and 32. Do you all suppose that, after asking Storm to take in his students in UX3 31, Cyclops took his sweet time to actually follow through and close the New Xavier School -- time enough for Axis and those other issues to occur? I don't know why he'd do that, but it would solve some problems.

Oh, and that two-panel scene in Axis #9 in which Havok arrives at the New Xavier School and embraces Cyclops must be a flash forward. And the scene as shown in UX3 32 doesn't quite match up -- Cyclops is masked in Axis #9 but unmasked in UX3 32. Sheesh.

Axis will come between 31 and 32. It's not like Cyclops took his time on purpose. He was kidnapped and taken to Genosha, works alongside Storm and her group during Axis because he was inverted, (speculation: works out the details with Storm), heads home, Hulk pays a visit, Kitty leaves for space, Cyclops breaks the news to the New Xavier School, Kitty returns, Havok shows up.

Doesn't the arc involve the timeline being rewritten to remove the Xavier/Mystique marriage from the original will reading and so forth? And Wolverine is present for the original will reading, but not the revised version?

Why not assume that the original version was (well, would have been) before Axis, but the altered timeline shoved it later, to post-Axis?

I've never liked the idea of writing off parts of a story because time has been altered. The catalyst for Eva Bell traveling to alter time had to happen for her to make the journey in the first place, alter it, then inform Cyclops of what she had done.

Jason Doty wrote:I've never liked the idea of writing off parts of a story because time has been altered. The catalyst for Eva Bell traveling to alter time had to happen for her to make the journey in the first place, alter it, then inform Cyclops of what she had done.

Two points. First, since Eva Bell clearly did alter the past, most of the storyline in Uncanny X-Men #23-31 has now never happened. Sure, Eva experienced it and remembers it but no one else does because it didn't happen...anymore. It would be like other storylines that were retroactively cancelled out and, like them, it would not be listed on the Project.

Second, regarding Wolverine's presence/absence, it would have been great if Bendis had thought to mention some reason why Logan was at the original will reading but not at the revised reading. Unfortunately, no such explanation was provided and the idea that the timing of Axis may have shifted slightly due to the timeline revision is at least a viable possibility. Not ideal but better than nothing.

By the way, if the revised Xavier and Mystique were never married, could the child they had together have been affected as well? Maybe he was never even conceived? Or maybe Xavier did impregnate Mystique and just didn't marry her?

Second, regarding Wolverine's presence/absence, it would have been great if Bendis had thought to mention some reason why Logan was at the original will reading but not at the revised reading. Unfortunately, no such explanation was provided

I think that Bendis writes stories that take a short time to happen in the MU but are published over a long time span and he always keeps his issues "current" with things going on in other books. That presents continuity problems.

Just a personal note of taste -- I hate these temporal resets. It's happening too often lately, it's a pain to chronologize, and I'm getting a bit bored with it. This issue: So-and-So mucks with the space-time continuum. Yeah, yeah, yeah...

Second, regarding Wolverine's presence/absence, it would have been great if Bendis had thought to mention some reason why Logan was at the original will reading but not at the revised reading. Unfortunately, no such explanation was provided

I think that Bendis writes stories that take a short time to happen in the MU but are published over a long time span and he always keeps his issues "current" with things going on in other books. That presents continuity problems.

Just a personal note of taste -- I hate these temporal resets. It's happening too often lately, it's a pain to chronologize, and I'm getting a bit bored with it. This issue: So-and-So mucks with the space-time continuum. Yeah, yeah, yeah...

Putting pretty much everything into the MCU project from 2013-2015 (Secret Wars) is going to be quite a head trip. They've basically been running with "Time is broken in the Marvel Multi-verse, so that gives us an excuse to not care if we publish timeline discrepancies!"

I wish they didn't though. The time-travel reset plot trick is getting stale to read about and it makes the work done on this site that much more difficult with mental acrobatics.